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00:00We all use batteries in our day to day lives. Most commonly it's power things like laptop computers and mobile phones. And the vast majority of consumer electronics are powered by lithium ion batteries. But in the future we'll be using batteries for an increasingly diverse range of different applications from tiny batteries that might power medical implants through to much larger batteries that might be used in conjunction with wind farms. Hi my name's Dr. Paul shearing and I work in chemical engineering at University College London. One of the reasons that we're researching new battery technologies is because of safety concerns about the existing generation of lithium ion batteries. Thankfully failure of lithium ion batteries is extremely rare. But when it does happen it can be catastrophic . And this has been highlighted by a number of recent events from the aerospace and automotive sectors. Most recently we've seen a number of airlines have limited the ability to ship bulk quantities of lithium batteries because of safety concerns . Read those play batteries are a rapidly developing technology and they are typically going to be employed in larger scale applications. For example those associated with wind farms or solar farms. The great thing about reuse play batteries is that because they continuously supply react and into the battery system they decouple the energy and the power of the battery . Whilst these radios play batteries rapidly developing systems there's still quite a nascent technology. There have been some demonstrations proved around the world but they're relatively small numbers. So we're waiting to see if this can really take off on a larger scale. People have been conducting research into lithium sulphur batteries for probably about 40 or 50 years but there's still a way off commercialization. The great thing about sulfur is that it's cheap and it's a waste product and things like natural gas and so in theory we can make lift himself or batteries very very cheaply from very low cost chemicals. However there's a fundamental kind of lack of understanding about the underlying chemistry that's going on within these batteries. One of the most exciting new types of batteries but possibly one of the furthest from commercialization is the lithium ion batteries. The reason why this is so exciting is because of its really high energy density weight by weight. Lithium ion batteries have a similar amount of stored energy as gasoline does that we put in our cars today . However they're not without their problems. As with any battery that uses a metallic lithium electrode because it's so reactive it can cause safety problems. So that's a rundown of some of the battery technologies exist today and some that we've got to look forward to in the future. Researchers like myself and colleagues are looking into how we can make these batteries safer more durable and deliver the highest possible energy and power density .

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Battery Revolution: The Future of Energy Storage

As we look into a low carbon future, the way we store the precious energy we can generate is forcing scientists to develop better batteries. Bloomberg examines energy storage in the years ahead. (Source: Bloomberg)